Indy Chronicler

EAST CHICAGO — A significant funding in life-saving cardiac care at St. Catherine Hospital is being hailed as a victory for East Chicago.

The long-standing hospital within the Indiana Harbor neighborhood landed a $1.5 million federal grant from the Well being Assets & Companies Administration to enhance well being care entry for people who find themselves medically weak or underinsured.

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan helped line up the cash and helped announce the funding.

“Immediately is a victory for the residents of East Chicago as a result of it is entry to well being care,” he stated. “I used to be born at St. Catherine Hospital. My grandparents had been taken right here. My mother and pa had been cared for right here. My sister was a sweet striper right here and went on to change into a nurse practitioner for Northwestern. This was and nonetheless is an anchor for the neighborhood.”

East Chicago leaders had been involved concerning the hospital’s future after Franciscan Well being determined to shut the equally aged former St. Margaret Hospital in neighboring Hammond, Northwest Indiana’s most populous metropolis.

“They wished to verify the safety-net hospital continued,” he stated. “What in the present day is about is assuring the town of East Chicago and each resident that St. Catherine is flourishing and investing in new expertise that provides them entry to care equal to wherever world wide. That is an funding in East Chicago itself, and it permits the residents to know they’ve entry to high quality care right here within the metropolis.”

When Mrvan was North Township trustee, he typically heard complaints from residents that they did not have entry to care.

“This can be a safety-net hospital. Meaning it takes care of probably the most weak populations,” he stated. “This expertise is the gold customary for Northwest Indiana. It is the identical expertise you’d have within the metropolis of Chicago, but it surely’s proper right here in East Chicago. The hospital is working to supply world-class well being care. As a congressman, I’ll hearken to your issues and attempt to present entry to well being care, the perfect expertise and the perfect for East Chicago.”

St. Catherine CEO Leo Correa stated the hospital continues to supply superior expertise to East Chicago and surrounding communities.

“St. Catherine Hospital is dedicated to making sure that our neighborhood has state-of-the-art cardiac care near dwelling,” Correa stated. “It is a well-known undeniable fact that within the Nineteen Sixties, St. Catherine Hospital turned the selection facility within the Chicagoland space for the remedy of coronary heart illness, performing the primary open-heart surgical procedure in Northwest Indiana. And in the present day, we proceed to spend money on cardiac care and treating coronary heart illness.”

The hospital will set up an Azurion 7 C20 Catalyst desk, an image-guided remedy system that gives high-quality photographs with low doses of X-rays. Philips Healthcare is putting in the brand new expertise in its cath lab, which is present process a multiphase modernization venture.

It’ll permit for precision prognosis and remedy for sufferers. The brand new expertise can seize unusual angiography views, present real-time 3-D impressions for complicated vascular interventions and higher visualize stent and balloon placement in coronary arteries.

“Our sufferers and clinicians profit from the quick process occasions, decreased radiation publicity and superior picture high quality of this new expertise,” stated Mary Miller, director of Cardiovascular Companies.

St. Catherine Hospital has lengthy positioned an emphasis on cardiac care whereas serving the neighborhood for almost a century, Correa stated.

“Throughout that point, we constructed a repute for offering unparalleled cardiac care,” he stated. “That didn’t occur by likelihood. That is the results of an intentional funding in prime well being care suppliers and assets.

“We now have fortified a tradition of excellence in cardiac care by persevering with to spend money on expert specialists and applied sciences to diagnose and deal with coronary heart illness. St. Catherine, together with our fellow hospitals in Group Healthcare System, Group Hospital in Munster and St. Mary Medical Heart in Hobart, operates one of many largest and most superior cardiovascular applications in Northwest Indiana. Our hospitals are licensed chest-pain facilities which can be absolutely accredited by the Joint Fee or the American School of Cardiology.

“Every single day, extremely expert cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, electrophysiologic and cardiac assist workers stroll via our doorways and use their experience to deal with sufferers who put their belief in us.”